In a turret type of labeling machine such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,108,709 and incorporated herein by reference, containers are supplied continuously to a rotating turret; each container, in turn, is clamped between an upper chuck and a lower chuck carried by the turret; the container, so clamped, is rotated orbitally about the central shaft of the turret to a label pick up station where it contacts the leading edge of a label carried by a label transport such as a rotating vacuum drum; the label is released from the vacuum drum and is wrapped around a container as the container is caused to spin about its axis; and with a label wrapped around, it is transported by the turret to a container release station where the labeled container is released from the turret. In this operation, it is necessary to rotate each container clamped between a pair of chucks orbitally about the axis of the turret and it is necessary to spin the container about its own axis tow rap a label about it.
In the aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 4,108,709 the spinning of the container is achieved by, for example, a wheel fixed to and coaxial with the upper member of a pair of chucks and a pad which is concentric to the turret axis. The contact between this wheel and pad causes the respective chuck, and with it the container, to spin.
This means of spinning the containers is quite effective but is limited in many ways. For example, the container can spin in only one direction and its speed is fixed by the speed of the turret and by the radius of the wheel and the pad. Also, this method of spinning the container to wrap the label may be ineffective for containers having generally noncircular cross sections.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a more versatile means of operating such a turret type of labeling machine.